I Don't Like Fruit Tea

After a relaxing week on retreat last week, I've been back to work this week.
I did manage to put off work over the weekend, with a meal out on Friday evening with a friend and some new people (which may or may not have involved watching an S-club 7 movie...!) I spent Saturday pottering around the island with a friend and then we had a family service on Sunday so I had no youth group to run.

Inevitably though, Monday morning came around once again and craziness resumed. We had our weekly YFC prayer breakfast and meeting which was good, and afterwards Dan and I planned a video that we needed to film. We're planning to show it at a youth event called Catalyst that we're running on Friday.
I did some bits of planning and organizing in the afternoon, and I had a lovely evening having dinner with a couple from church.

I got up bright and early on Tuesday morning (well, it was still dark!) at 5am, and left the house at 5.45, not to return for almost 16hours. On the journey to Moorlands, we shot some of the film (about detectives trying to uncover the reasons behind someone's actions) and continued the filming when we arrived before our first lecture. This involved wondering around college dressed in silly outfits and getting some odd looks from students who had just rolled out of bed!
After a long day at college we headed back to the island, and enjoyed watching a lightening storm from the ferry. I went straight into Newport for safeguarding training, where, as well as having my safeguarding knowledge refreshed, I learnt that I don't like fruit tea!

After a good night's sleep and much procrastination, I planned a meeting and then finally got around to a bit of essay writing, accompanied by a Percy Pig feast and a cup of tea (Thanks Mum!)

In the evening Brian from Uganda was online (which is a very rare occurrence!) and was able to skype, so we chatted until 2 in the morning (4am Uganda time!) It was so special to get to chat to him for such a long time as usually we are restricted to phonecalls which can get expensive so they never last long.

Brian on skype

On Thursday I had more planning to do as I'll be talking at our Light Party next week. I also had a few meetings, one of which was about a new youth club that we're starting after half term. They all went really well and I'm looking forward to the new youth club in a couple of weeks.

Friday was Catalyst day, so after doing some prep for other things in the morning, I headed out to help set up for Catalyst which is a youth worship event that YFC run about once a month. We had a lot of stuff to set up and I had the very important task of cooking dinner (pizza) for a lot of hungry musicians and youth workers. Catalyst went really well and I think it's safe to say that I was suitably embarrassed when we played the video that we filmed on Tuesday!

I'm now in Basingstoke for a few days as it's my Dad's birthday on Sunday. Once I arrived this morning we went for a walk along the river together and a cream tea which was lovely. I'm really looking forward to going to Christ Church tomorrow and to catching up with everyone and spending some time with Mum & Dad :)

Please pray this week...

- That I'll enjoy my time off at home
- For a safe journey to Southampton on Tuesday
- For me and the rest of the team as we run our light party on Thursday. Pray for me as I give the talk.

YFC Retreat

Last Sunday the youth group at church went really well. We learnt about friendship and we made a poster about what the bible says about friendship. My Mum and her friends came along to church as they were on the island for the weekend and so afterwards we all went out for lunch together which was lovely.

On Monday I headed off with the rest of the YFC team for a 7 hour journey to Pembrokeshire in Wales for our retreat.
We had a brilliant week together, and took lots of time to just spend with God, whether that was together through singing or watching a Louie Giglio talk together, or on our own; going for a walk, reading the bible or just chilling out with God. It was so good to have a few hours each day to do this and was so refreshing spiritually.

A walk in the forest

We also ate far too much food, completed an assault course blindfolded, climbed a tree, messed around in the swimming pool (and got told off by a lifeguard!), went for a walk along the beach and found an enormous jellyfish, and ate lots and lots of cheese.
It was great opportunity to get to know the rest of the team better too, in an environment where we're not responsible for a group of young people.

Beach

Please pray this week...

- Pray for me on Tuesday as I have a very long and busy day planned, so pray for energy
- Pray for me on Thursday as I meet up with a few people to plan a new youth club that we're hoping to start soon.

Cowboys Descending on Niton

Can I firstly say a huge 'Congratualtions!' to two of my closest friends in Uganda - Brian and Terry, on the birth of their daughter Breanna Bazira on Friday 11th October. I got a phone-call on Friday morning to say that Terry had just delivered a baby girl less than an hour ago and they wanted to know what her name is! Brian and Terry want all of their children's names to begin with the letter B, so I named her Breanna which means 'honourable and strong'. She weighs 3.5kg and Brian said that she looks just like her big sister Berindah. It was so special to speak to them both on the phone and to hear little Breanna crying. As Brian is so much like a brother to me, I am 'Aunty Lorna' to their new baby girl, and I can't wait to meet her if God takes me back to Uganda soon.

Mummy and Daddy with big sister Berindah

Last weekend I went out for a meal to celebrate a friend's birthday and met lots of new (absolutely crazy) people there which was great!
In the afternoon I finally did some baking - something I've been wanting to do for ages and haven't had the right moment...

We had our weekly meeting at YFC on Monday morning, and in the evening I went to visit Niton Rock Solid youth club. It was crazy as they have so many kids that come, but it was good fun and was great to see how they do Rock Solid it over in Niton.

I got up at 5.15 on Tuesday morning and this week was my turn to drive to Moorlands. I forgot how much I enjoy driving on the mainland (on bigger roads!)Our lectures were good and I handed in my first essay which made me feel very efficient.

I was exhausted on Wednesday, but fortunately I didn't have a very busy day. I did some odd bits of planning, and I had a meeting in the evening. We decided that we're going to start a new Rock Solid youth club at church after half term which is so exciting!

I got to meet up with my field work tutor on Thursday. This is something organised by Moorlands - each placement based student gets paired up with a Moorlands graduate . The idea is that we can meet up every now and then and I can ask lots of questions and she can support me in my studies. It was lovely to meet up and was a good chance to ask lots of questions about what is required for my portfolio.

On Friday evening all of the Rock Solid youth clubs from all over the island descended on Niton, dressed as cowboys for their annual 'Night Hike'. During the evening they had to complete various challenges, one of which I was running. It was a great night and was good to meet all of the Rock Solid groups and to mess around in the dark.

My Mum and some of her friends are on holiday on the island for the weekend so I stayed with them in Niton overnight which was lovely (especially the cooked breakfast in the morning!)

All of the YFC core team are off on retreat on Monday to somewhere in Wales for the week.

Please pray...- For Brian, Terry, Berindah and their new arrival Breanna. Pray for them to adjust to a new family dynamic and to enjoy their new little one and also pray for health and provision.


- For the YFC team on retreat next week. Pray that we will all become closer as a team and spend some quality time getting closer with God too.

A whole year later!

I'm not quite sure how it's possible that I'm already writing another blog - because that mean's that another week has already passed! 

Its been a strange week as Smile's new gappers flew to Uganda on Tuesday, so my time there and all my friends there have been on my mind even more than usual this week. I'm so excited for all the new gappers as they begin their adventure, but also can't help being a bit jealous that they get to spend the next 9 months with some of the people who I love and miss so much. I know they'll have an incredible year. It's hard to believe how much has happened in the past year. This time last year I was four days away from flying to Uganda, and I had absolutely no idea that I would now be doing youth work, let alone doing it on the Isle of Wight! Its so exciting that God's plans are so much more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Some of my lovely friends in Uganda
just because I love them so much and have been thinking about them all week! 

I've had a few lovely long distance conversations this week. I got to chat to Lawrence (from Uganda) on skype, had a couple of phone calls with Terry (from Uganda) who is expecting a baby this weekend! And today I spoke to Clare (my sister/another gapper from Uganda) on skype from York where she has just started at Uni.

On Monday we had our weekly YFC prayer breakfast and team meeting in the morning and then I spent the afternoon being social with some others from YFC which was lovely. I got a very early night (8.30!) as I had to get up at 5.30 on Tuesday morning, to catch the 6.25 ferry to Lymington for a day of lectures at Moorlands - which is near Christchurch (which is near Bournemouth). It was a long but brilliant day. We started the day with chapel which was great and then we had lectures on two separate modules -  'church doctrine' and 'youth and society' for which we had our first essay set.

So having had such a long day on Tuesday, I treated myself to a lie-in on Wednesday morning until about 10 as I was meeting someone at 11 to chat about my work at church. This Sunday I'll be running our first Sunday morning youth group during church which I'm really excited about!

I was invited out for a coffee (although I didn't actually drink any coffee!) in the afternoon which was lovely - so many people have been so friendly! The family that I'm staying with had friends over for dinner (one of whom just so happened to be the same person that I went for a drink with!) so that was good fun.

We had health and safety training on Thursday morning (which was made much more exciting by the presence of cake - which didn't last very long!). I spent the afternoon writing an essay, which meant that I was a bit brain dead when I arrived at church council in the evening!
I spent a decent amount of time today sat at my desk and this afternoon I finally finished my first essay (yay!)

Essay writing

Thank you so much to everyone who prays for me.
This week please can you pray...
- For Smile Uganda and the new gappers as they begin a new season.
- For the youth group on Sunday morning.
- That I'll continue settling in and building friendships.
- That God will use me.

The New Starts Continue!

  And just like that another week has gone by already!
Last weekend was very exciting because I picked up my new car! I also got a chance to put some photos up in my room and write some letters to some friends (I'm a big fan of handwritten letters over emails). We didn't have a preacher at church so we passed around a microphone and lots of people shared what was on their hearts. It was unconventional but brilliant and I think that God spoke through the things that people said.
I shared a verse in Psalm 27 that I first read in Uganda at a time when I really needed to hear it, and I've come back to a lot in the past year. Verse 14; "Wait on the Lord, be strong and take heart, and wait on the Lord"
  In the afternoon we went for a walk along the beach with the dog who very much enjoyed chasing her frisbee into the sea! Personally I didn't feel like a swim, but I did very much enjoy the view :)



  From Monday to Wednesday I was back at Moorlands for study skills (how to write an essay / make footnotes etc.) This week the campus based first year students moved in, so the atmosphere was quite different. It was lovely to spend more time with the people on my course (we escaped to the pub both evenings!) and to meet more people. On Friday I had a meeting with our Methodist minister and had lunch with him and his wife and my placement supervisor which was nice. In the evening YFC on the island had a celebration and commissioning event. It was the first time that the whole of the core team had been together and it was a fantastic evening. Among other things, we ran around the church pretending to be monkeys, played "Jesus says" (Instead of Simon says), sang some worship songs and were prayed for.
  On Saturday I drove over to Niton to visit my parents who were on holiday with their friends there. It was lovely to see them although a bit surreal to be a tourist for the morning! We had a good catch up and it was good to spend some time with them.
  This morning we celebrated Harvest at church with a messy church event instead of Sunday school, so we had a few more kids than normal, and we got very messy doing things like vegetable printing and making bread to celebrate the harvest gifts that God has given us.

  Please pray for me in the coming week as I start to try to get some of our visions and ideas to become realities. Pray that God will give me his patience and wisdom, and also that I'll continue settling well and making friends.

For those who have been asking to see photos...

My room

                                                   

1st Block Week at Moorlands

This week I started my course at Moorlands College. I'm studying a placement based course, which means that usually I'll only go to college once a week, but this week for the start of the degree, we had a whole week in college. 

It was fantastic!
It was somewhat different from the 'freshers weeks' that I expect most of my friends will have experiences of, as we spent all day, every day in lectures. We covered lots of different topics in our first module; from conflict to boundaries, and from worship to preaching. The lectures were filled with lots of challenging and interesting ideas.

"What is worship?"

"Your view and understanding of God will always determine the quality of your worship."
"People should come away from your sermon praising God, not praising you."

These were just some of the things that I have written down in my notebook.

We found different things to do to entertain ourselves in the evenings, so on a couple of days I ended up going for a walk along the beach with people from my course. Another evening we had a 'party' with our tutor group (which was like no party I've ever been to before, but it was good fun!). I also discovered a particular (apparent) talent for table football!

At this point in time, I'm really quite excited about the degree I've just started. The people on my course are great. Its brilliant to have such a diverse group of people of different ages, backgrounds and characters, and I'm looking forward to studying with them and getting to know them all better. We'll see whether my attitude changes when I have my first essay set!

So I'm back on the island for the weekend, and then on Monday I'll be headed back to Moorlands for another 3 days for orientation and study skills.

New starts and old friends

Wow, well this has been an intense week!
Until Wednesday I was on the Isle of Wight, visiting different clubs that go on at church like indoor bowls and a mother and toddler group. I also went to my first YFC team meeting which was great - it was lovely to meet the team and to talk about all the things that are coming up in the next few weeks and months with YFC on the island. I also visited a youth group in another area of the island to see how they do things and I even found some time to explore a bit and go for a walk along the coast! I've met so many new people this week which has been great and I'm looking forward to getting to know people better as I spend more time with them.

On Wednesday evening I took a ferry back across to the mainland and drove back up to Basingstoke ready to meet Clare (one of the gappers from my gap year) in the morning. We made rolex for lunch, which is a type of food we used to eat in Uganda - omelette wrapped in a chapatti. Then we drove to Kent to go and visit Smile's new gappers at their training week. We were so excited because we got to get together with all the others from our gap year and also to meet Alex (our project manager in Uganda) for the first time since leaving him at Entebbe airport back at the start of July.
It was lovely to meet the new gappers and tell them all about Uganda. I'm so excited for them but also feel quite jealous as I know what an incredible year they're about to have.

So all of us ex-gappers went back to stay the night at Finch's house, and the next day 4 of us drove back to Basingstoke. It was great to be together again. Alex came on Saturday and we took him to the village show and went for a walk. We had dinner together and just enjoyed spending time together like we used to in Uganda. They all came to church and to the church lunch today. Today was my last day at Christ Church for what will probably be a long time.
Seeing everyone leave was hard - it reminded us a bit of how we felt when we left Uganda and then left each other the week later. I'm just looking forward to when I can go back and visit my friends there. All of us ex-gappers are starting uni now, so I'm looking forward to visiting them in the next few months.
Pray for me this week as I spend the week at Moorlands for a block week of study at the start of my course.

P.s. for those who asked for my new postal address...

Lorna Randall
5 Goldcrest Close
Newport
Isle of Wight
PO30 5FX

Mail is always welcome :)